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Professional Edge

Designed to support community economic and workforce development needs in metropolitan Kansas City, the Professional Edge Breakfast Series offers KU faculty and staff as presenters on current topics. Professional Edge provides:

Focused conversation around key workforce topics being faced within many organizations today

Discussion on current trends and practices

Opportunity for professional development and growth

An atmosphere for individuals to interact and discuss specific ideas

Our Professional Edge breakfast series takes places each semester on the Edwards Campus.

Wednesday, March 5
Organizational Training and Development: Past, Present, and FutureDr. Bob Isaacson, lecturer, KU School of Education
The American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD) standards focus on changes driven by economic forces, demographic shifts and evolutions in technology and communication. This presentation will discuss emerging technologies that will shape the future of education and workforce training. An open dialogue will follow regarding critical training needs in Greater Kansas City organizations.

Wednesday, April 2Building Partnerships That LastBlane Harding, director, KU Office of Multicultural Affairs
This presentation will focus on the changing demographics of society and the impact these changes will have on the workforce. It will include a close look at these changing demographics, the organizational benefits of this change, how do you recruit and manage a diverse workforce, and finally what role do you play in this process.

Wednesday, May 7
Sixth Annual Leadership Symposium - Framing Outcomes

Lessons in Change Management: Setting Yourself Up for Success
Melanie Nelson – Cerner Corporation, vice president, Behavior Change & Adoption
Mike Allison – Cerner Corporation, senior director, Associate Learning
Changing individual behaviors is hard. Changing organizational behaviors that lead to real business results feels impossible. In this session we will contrast the concepts of adaptive and technical change to discover that we often default to applying technical solutions to adaptive problems. We will explore key factors – and practical lessons learned – to help us navigate adaptive change. Finally, we will construct an immediate action plan focused on setting up our next change initiative for success.

Taking the Stank Out of Performance Management
Tim Moran – author, speaker and HR consultant – TMoran Consulting, LLC
The conventional performance management/review process is sucking the life out of employees and organizations. Enough is enough! This provocative presentation will review a brief history of performance management, how the business world has changed and why we hate the current process. Most importantly, you’ll take away a framework for a more efficient and effective performance management/review process.